I certainly hope one, or more, of you can help.
A friend asked me to repair a crack in his living room wall. This crack has repeatedly appeared and been repaired several times, always on the same line. (I am not sure if this is along a seam.) I believe the crack is due to settling, although the house is over 20 years old. A painter once told them the crack could be patched but would eventually reappear no matter what was done.
Any ideas on how I might repair this crack in a manner which will either prevent a reoccurrence or at least result in a long lived repair?
Thanks!
Replies
Ya just have to live with some cracks every once in awhile...bottomline.
I had problem with a crack re-opening over door between dining room and sunporch. Even cut out a piece of drywall and replaced it--opened up again. Finally went into the basement under that area and put in a jackpost. Jacked it up a couple turns each week and now the crack has closed.
If you haven't already, you may want to try a setting compound.
Less shrinkage during the curing phase, and they're less prone to cracking.
If this is on a seam, clean it out and retape and mud the seam. A simple veneer or topical application will do no good at all.
If this is in the middle of a sheet, then widen the crack and treat it like a butt joint. Feather the repair over a wide area.
If this is an exterior wall and there is a vapor barrier behind the rock carefuel you don't slice up the barrier during the repair.
I have seen advertisements for a thin, flexible tape-like material that goes over cracks, the tape is then painted. No clue as to the effectivensss of something like that, though.
Sometime you can prevent cracks by removing some fasteners to let the drywall 'float' a bit more.
The idea is to let the wall move without taking the relatively brittle drywall along with it. This is the same theory behind using "floating corners" at ceiling/wall junctions.
You might be able to find the fasteners with a magnet and pull some of them out, or you could cut out a section around the crack, then reinstall with no fasteners near the problem seam.
Also helps to use fiberglass mesh tape instead of the paper type.
Edited 2/21/2006 2:31 pm ET by csnow
Where exactly is the crack?
A: Pumpkin Pi